Distant Encounters
by hotaru anne
Summary: After the Drakh leave Babylon 5 defenseless, the Excalibur comes in to aide the distress call as well as find a group of saboteurs from blowing up the station. Sequal to Babylon 5's "True Intentions"
1. A Call in the Wild

title: distant encounters  
from series: crusade  
author: hotaru anne  
email: silentsenshi@hotmail.com  
date accomplished: february 4/2000  
type of fiction: science fiction/babylon 5 project/crusade  
major characters: capt. matthew gideon, capt. elizabeth lochley, lt. john matheson, dr. sarah chambers, max eilerson, dureena nafeel, trace miller, lt. cmdr. david corwin, captain susan ivanova  
summary: after the drakh leaves babylon 5 defenceless, the excalibur arrives to help recover the civilians and restore the station back to normal. after a series of sabotages, gideon and lochley now must try to find the saboteurs before blowing the station up---completely.  
note: my second story. read "true intentions" my first b5 one if you want to know what happened to max when he was on babylon 5 for the first time. very explosive and it's still on babylon 5. i think i'll make my next story somewhere else aside from babylon 5.  
timeline set on: this event takes place after the thirteenth episode of crusade "every night i dream of home". fan fiction's thought; don't know it'll happen but it's before that ummade episode fourteen " "  
disclaimer: all characters and places mentioned in this story belongs to jms and warner bros. btw, the story was made by me and is on my website. pls don't use my story to conjure up a story similar and don't try taking it from my site. thanxs.   
  
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PROLOGUE  
Babylon Five drifted in space, but not alone. Surrounding them in space, attack forces from the Drakh had definitely decided to take pleasure of detroying the Babylon 5 space station, the last of the Babylon stations. The station's shields were punched through, its defences scorned and was now moments away from a true death blow. It was left defenceless and vunerable, and not a single ship was out there to help them all.  
Inside was pure madness; wounded officers, a handful of able-bodied crew members and scorched consols surrounded the Command Center. Captain Elizabeth Lochley, who was in charge of the popular station for six years year and a half now wasn't even sure if she could keep this attack up and save the station and its crew from the hands of their enemies. No one was around to help the attacked station; no one could save them now.  
"We've got a hull breach at section eight," reported an ensign. "Enviormental seals on."   
Another death blow rocked the station beneath their feet. Who knows how long the station's integrity would last in the face of destruction. Had to hand it to them, Lochley thought bitterly, their weapons can surely work. She sighed and turned from their mirror in space to look down at the worried ensign. "Can't you transfer all power to the shields?" she demanded.   
"Not without cutting ourselves from the battle, sir." He was young, human. He gave a heavy sigh; a look too familiar for a commanding officer like Lochley not to notice. His eyes meet his commanding officer's piercing glare and shrugged helplessly. First assignment, she observed. "I'm sorry, sir," he offered haplessly.   
"It's not your fault, ensign," Lochley told him as calmly as she could as another blow jolted the station beneath them yet again. She slid back at the energy of the jolt as her hands reached out and grabbed the railing sharply, as she turned and pulled herself up. It looked like they were on their own out there. There was one more thing they needed to do if they were to die out here against the enemy; a distress call. She pulled herself to full figure and roared over the sound of the klaxon and the licking flames, "Ensign! Start relaying an automatic distress call."  
"Distress call is on, sir," he replied.  
She pulled herself up to a monitor. "This is Captain Elizabeth Lochley of the Babylon 5 space station," she told the monitor. "We have been attacked by a fleet of Drakh warriors. We have disassembled their formation, but with the shields and weapons gone, we have no choice but to evacuate the station. If anyone can help us, we need your help." Another hit. "Please! Lochley out!" The screen went dead as another hit.   
"Distress signal up and processing."  
Lochley brushed her hair aside. "Ensign Ian," she ordered, "evacuate the station." The ensgin stood up in protest. "But sir..." he babbled in protest, but Lochley gave brushed it off with a cool but stern gaze. "Ensign," she said sternly, "if I do not evacuate this station, millions of people with die. It is rather we lose the station than to have people in it."   
The ensign gave a brief lock on Lochley, before sighing heavily. "You're the commander," he finally gave in. "I just hope that the Drahk don't start shooting on our escape pods and ships." Lochley shuddered at the thought; she too, prayed that the Drahk wouldn't start firing at the helpless and defenceless pods once they were released. "I want all civilians off this station. All personnel will remain here."  
"Sir---?" the ensign began.   
"That's an order, ensign," Lochley replied stiffly. The ensign sighed and went back to work. She turned to the view of the attack. The drahk reminded her of spiders, hovering in space and attacking like animals. If the plague was bad enough, what else was? Many people on her home planet was dying as it was and, at the front of the line trying to find a cure was Captain Matthew Gideon of the Excalibur. The two have known each other since the conference on Mars. She prayed that they would find the plague before the five years were up or else Earth would suffer the concequences.   
Gideon...that name was reminded in her every single day. The two not only were captains of Earthforce, but they seem to be alike in every angle. They could finish each others sentences and train of thoughts, they both had the same style of command...not to mention she knew his favourite lo mein type. They were almost similar; except the time Elizabeth spent married to the President of the Interstellar Alliance, John Sheridan himself, who had already commanded B5 before. He was a damned good captain...of course, until he became a president and gave the open slot to her. Not because they were married before, but because of her record.   
Great, she thought now, now my perfect record will be dented over this damned attack. If the Drahk would have left them alone, perhaps the only things she would worry now was about the life of an interstellar despot and the small problems on board the station. For a brief moment, she thought not of the attack, not of the exploding consols or the limping officers, nothing but the stars. God was out there, somewhere, she thought peacefully, her thoughts contracting to one. If you could hear me, please help us. Don't let my people die over these enemies. Don't let the station, the last of the Babylon stations blow up because of them. Please, if you're listening, don't turn away from a distress call, please...  
  
Someone was calling him.   
Captain Matthew Gideon stopped twitching in his command seat for a moment and looked out onto the scattered stars of the large viewscreen. He could've sworn he could hear someone calling to him, in need of help. Something about not turning away from a distress signal. Was someone in need of help? It sure sounds like it. He frowned. Maybe it was just his imagination. After all, he wasn't a telepath. But he couldn't turn away. Not after what happened on the Cerebrus.  
"Lieutenant," he called. From the helm, his first officer, Lt. John Matheson turned to face his captain. Young, oriental, a telepath from the old and deceased PsiCorps. A small thin wire went from behind his ear to a couple of centimeters of his lips to serve as a communique device. His eyes gazed up in askance that not even a non-telepath would know what he was thinking. "Lieutenant," he said, "scan the area for any distress relays."  
"Captain?" he asked curiously.   
It appeared the order seemed a little odd for Matheson. Why would he ask for a scan for any distress signals? Something was cooking, and Gideon just didn't know how to explain it. "I'm no telepath," he blurted out bluntly. "Someone's calling out to me, I just can't explain it. Please John, just do the scan." He sighed and lay back on his nice soft chair. It felt just right; it was getting used to who was in charge now.   
"Aye, aye sir," he replied automatically. After a moment of tinkering through the control panels, he blinked and without turning, he said, "Sir, I'm picking up a distress signal." Finally, some action going on! Gideon thought as he got to his feet and joined him at helm. He hovered over him. "Can you pinpoint the source?" he asked.   
"No, sir," he replied earnestly. "It appears that the transmission was sent with some cross alignments to some energy blasts. I believe whatever is sending the distress signal is under... attack, sir." Gideon sighed. Just what he needed to stir up the day, an attacked vessel. He then nodded. He mustn't leave the vessel's fate hanging around in shreds. "Put it through," he ordered curtly. "On screen."  
Smoke. Consols exploding. Panicking Earthforce officers. What was this? What was going on? A figure. Perhaps the captain was trying to hail for assistance. The connection was a bit blurry, but he caught a faint glint of red hair and gold earrings. Finally, it calmed down for a while as Gideon studied the view screen. Lochley? Was this Babylon 5? Who was attack them? "This is Captain Elizabeth Lochley of the Babylon 5 space station," she told them. "We have been attacked by a fleet of Drakh warriors. We have disassembled their formation, but with the shields and weapons gone, we have no choice but to evacuate the station. If anyone can help us, we need your he---" The screen went blank, as Gideon could tell another hit was made.   
Lochley's neck in space was being attacked by the same aliens that had caused Earth to ben in virus. She was in trouble in her part of space and he had an urge to help. It was their duty to help others. He slammed his palm on Matheson's chair. Soft. "Matheson," he said, "how long will it take to make it to them to assist?"  
He shook his head. "Five minutes from our current position," he replied. Gideon sighed; five minutes. It was quite a timeloop for five minutes. Who knows how long this message was relayed. Who knows what was their current status? No, he must help them in any way they could. Drive the Drakh off if they must. They must keep the last of the Babylon stations intact. He sighed at the chain of command.   
"Prepare a jump to Babylon 5," he ordered.   
"Aye sir," Matheson said unevenly, but he knew he that could and would not question his captain's orders. He immediately prepared a jumphole. Gideon nodded and sat back on his chair, letting out a shaky sigh. Lochley was in danger on Babylon 5 with the Drakh hanging around, and he had to get there...before it would be too late.  
  
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Wat do you think? R&R! 


	2. Breakdown Palace

Here's the next installment. ^^ Hope you enjoy it. If  
u don't know, it's a sequal to the story "True Intentions" which is in the Babylon 5 section. ^^  
  
CHAPTER ONE  
Explosion hit the deck as Lochley watched the tiny escape pods flying free with their tiny thusters. Unfortunately, the drakh ships began to fire again, this time both the station and the tiny escape pods. Blast it! a thin cord inside her snapped angrily, while physically she slammed her palm on the computer consol. Pain throbbed up her arm, but nothing ached anymore; she was already bruised and bleeding. She had to help the defenceless escape pods. She turned to an officer. "How much power can we give to the weapon sails?"  
"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, blinking deafly.   
Lochley sighed despite her fustration. "Transfer all power to the weapon sails," she ordered. "We have to help those civilians out there!" She turned to glare at the lieutenant. The lieutenant Krycek in turn, frowned. "But sir..." she began. Lochley interrupted by a slam of her palm on the consol. "Dammit, lieutenant!" she snapped. "Just do the damned transfer!"  
"We don't have much to give, sir," she told the captain bluntly.   
So much for an officer, Lochley thought in her sea of fustration and pain. The station was going to blow up as it will and destined to, the escape pods are being fired apon and now a lieutenant that won't obey her command? This was making her sick. She glared angrily at the lieutenant and scowled. Finally, she pushed her way pass the lieutenant to her consol. "Dammit, if you won't do it, I will," she declared. "Remind me to throw you out of the airlock, considered we survive this mess."  
"Transfer complete," the computer responded to her commands.   
Streaks of energy from the station sliced through space and into the drakh ships. Slam! The ship was now getting crippled as it was. Lochley returned to her post in front of the glass window. Just when things seemed to get brighter, the ship powered up its forward weaponry and targetted the Command Center.   
"Captain!" the ensign cried. "They're aiming us!"  
"Close glass window!" she barked a command. The ensign grumbled as he quickly tried to shut the doors. Unfortunately, it was slower than she thought; the blast hit the window half way closing in. Slam! She was stunned as the consols began to go haywire with strange energy bolts going around the circuits. Her hand, her body range was caught in the transaction as the windows closed shut. She bolted back at the blast of energy as she slammed on the railing and then to the floor with a reluctant thud.   
"Captain!" the ensign yelled. He turned to the Lt. Aliza Krycek. "Get a first aid kit!" The lieutenant thundered to get a kit as the boots of the ensign ran up the rung staircase and to the form of the injured captain. The lieutenant dropped the med kit with a thud before storming off. Ian looked at the lieutenant, obviously annoyed. "Gee, thanks," he said indignantly. He took out a medical scanner.   
"Sir," he said after a while, "you're injuries are a little worse than I thought..." He seemed reluctant to say. Lochley looked at the young man, obviously noting it was truly his first assignment. "C'mon, Alex," she coaxed, "tell me what's wrong. I'm a captain; I've seen the face of death more than once." It was true; especially the time she spent with Gideon. The Lorkans trying to kill them and the Sacred Omega...the man was dangerous.   
"But..." he blubbered but she silenced him with a chop of her hand as she gazed coolly at him, obviously giving him the sign that it was an order. He sighed; she wasn't going to like the news. He pressed his lips together before stating, "Internal bleeding to your side and a broken hip..." He paused, blinking away some painful memory before continuing. "I don't know how long I can keep you alive."   
She nodded in acknowledgement. To see death in the eye...just beautiful. Ah...she prayed to God himself that her crew would live on after she was gone. Then, as the ensign left for some more bandages, a tear began to form from the corner of her eye. Matt...she wasn't going to be able to see him for another while or so, since he was out trying to ffind a cure for the plague. This was crazy, pathetic, barely adequate. And now she was lying moments away from her death to meet her maker.   
"We've got a drakh ship on our starport bow," Ensign Arnold Delany reported.   
Lochley let in a harsh breath. This was it. Another blast, this time a death throw rocked the ship. The emergancy klaxons were still on but now wildly screaming like banshees as consols exploded and ringed with gold tacts and static. Explosions and fog whipped the air as officers fell to the rung floor.   
Her heart was exploding from all the chaos. Finally, as the noise and the fog level dropped, she opened her eyes. She wasn't dead, but she didn't know if she was alive. Or much if anyone was alive. She staggered to her feet and felt a surge of pain; the blood inside was weighing against her. Oh, she was thankful at least that some damage happened to her; that way she wouldn't have to have that stupid meeting with the interstellar alliance.   
She lost control of her legs and slammed back onto the floor, her head slamming hard on a consol on her way to the floor. Uch. She could feel some blood pouring down from her temples as her eyes fluttered aimlessly. Sounds, like a ship. Oh, she knew that sound all too well. Earthforce ships tended to have a certain ring to it...someone had answered the distress call! They were going to live! Babylon 5 wouldn't be torn down to pieces of molecules after all.   
The captain's hopes dropped; she was lying on the bridge of her station with internal bleeding, hemmrage and a bleeding scalp. Beautiful. Who knows how long it'll take before emergancy medical teams get on board the station? She wasn't going to live after all. At least she could give Commander Corwin, her executive officer, that damned promotion that he wanted ever since he became a first officer. Hotshot.   
As she gazed into the ceiling, she began to wonder if anyone would remember her. Of course, after all, they remembered the first commander of this station, Commander Sinclair. Then of course they'll remember Lochley. Maybe. She wasn't sure. As the ceiling filtered her brain with the patterns, she prayed at least an angel would swoop her up from falling...  
  
"Drakh ships are leaving the vacinity," Matheson reported as the Excalibur glided into Babylon 5 controls. He began to run a scan of the station before turning. "The station has been evacuated, sir," he reported. "Station intergrity still intact, but barely. Loss of energy capsules on all weapon decks and we've got severe damage to the hull and some hull breaches the enviormental systems couldn't plug up."  
"Looks like the station put up one hell of a fight," Gideon observed from his chair. Scorched hulls, wearied gunpower...Gideon was afraid of even looking inside the station. The casualties would be even more devastating.   
"Yes sir."  
Gideon brushed his hair back. What were the chances that there was anyone on board the station alive? He knew Lochley's moves; he knew she would have evacuated all civilians and left the personnel on board to try to make sure all the pods were away from danger. He would have done it himself. "Personnel?" he asked.   
"I'm recieving around 5000 Earthforce personnel," he replied. "About two thirds are wounded as far as my scanners can tell." A note in his first officer's voice was trembling in shock and sorrow. Matheson was no fool; he has seen alot himself, in the PsiCorps.   
Captain Gideon nodded in acknowledgement and studied the station for a brief moment. "I want you to take out all scout ships and recover the life pods," Gideon ordered. "I also want landing troops to scout the planet. Contact Dr. Chambers and tell her we're going to the station. You have the bridge, Lieutenant."  
"We, sir?" he clarified in question.   
Matthew sighed. "I have to see someone on board to see if she's still intact," he stated bluntly. Matheson raised a brow in suspicion but said nothing, obvious sign that he knew why he was going over; Lochley. The lieutenant chuckled to himself as he turned around. "If I have known better," he said to his captain, "I'd say you have gotten fond of her."  
"What's that suppose to mean, Matheson?"  
Matheson shook his head, still smiling. "It means," he said slowly, "that something came up between the two of you. When you met her on Mars, you were obviously stressed over her striking apporach and now you want to check on her? Hmm, one of these days..." He continued to work on the orders. "Sir, we're off by one man fighter. Tyle seemed to have a shore leave..."  
"Is there anyone avalible at the current time?" Gideon asked.  
Matheson turned around. "There is one person in mind..."  
  
"You want me to fly a fighter?" The question was obvious as a surprised Trace Miller was sipping some coffee. The man was a hell of a pilot but apparently felt like a yo-yo at times for being avalible all the time. Gideon was across him, also drinking some coffee. He shrugged as he offered him a hand. "C'mon, Trace," he coaxed, "you're one hell of a pilot. We need someone to track down pods that escaped the attack."  
"Who told you I was avalible?" Trace asked suspisiously.   
"Dosen't matter," he replied quickly. "We're only asking you to drive one in search for the life pods that escaped the damnable fight bab5 put up with. C'mon Trace, we need a winger here. Lives, flying a Starfury. What do you say, Trace?" He sipped some coffee, but his eyes never left Trace's as he fumbled at the coffee mug.   
"Okay," he replied slowly.   
Gideon nodded. He knew Trace wouldn't pull down on an offer like that. "Matheson will be in command of Alpha Leader. You're his wingman." "Beautiful," he remarked sarcastically. Gideon ignored the hint of sacasm. "Dr. Chambers and Galen and Dureena will be taking the landing scouts and Mr. Eilerson and I will be taking another scout to the command deck for recovery teams."  
"You and Mr. Eilerson," Trace mused. "Dosen't sound like a good team you've got there, Captain." He bemused a grin and looked down at his steaming cup. "Wherever there's trouble, usually the name "eilerson" pops into your head. But...it's up to you." He sipped whatever it was from his suppose-to-be coffee mug.   
Gideon hesitated, thinking. He was right. The hell he was right. Max was like his evil double, the ego the size of the entire galactic core, his mouth as big as the entire ship. He was always quipping but smart. Why the hell did he need him at all in the first place?  
"Nah," he replied with a sheepish and bitter grin, "I think I'll take Dureena instead. That way, Max's ego won't smother me while I try to find the command crew of Babylon 5." Trace nodded in his brass decision as he took a sip of that stuff, thinking to himself of the entire idea. "My, my, will Dr. Chambers be surprised," he mused at his captain's decision. And at that moment, Gideon wished he could smack the guy.   
  
"You! Out of all the people I have on the ship, the captain put you?!" Chambers was indeed disappointed and was fuming out all her fustrations with Max. Not only did she have to work with him two thirds of the day to find the damned cure, but now she has him on her team?! There was a time he could've frailed that damned galactic ego of his.   
Max shrugged as he pulled on the jacket. Regulations said that before boarding a vessel, he should at least have himself in check. His collegues remained on boards; what was there to pick around in an independant station anyhow?  
"Tell me exactly," Chambers said, her mouth in a twisted frown. "How on earth did the captain decide for you to go?" Max shrugged; he wasn't sure himself. "The captain thought that since I am an archaeologist as well who finds himself to dig alot," he stated, zippinng up his vest, "I might as well help you."  
"You can start by shutting up."  
"Will do."  
Chambers turned to the rest of her team. "Okay, team, listen up!" she hollered. Silence claimed them. "Okay, once we board the station, the first thing we do is to search for survivors. Find them, load them and then ship them to their Medlab, is that understood?"  
"Yes, doctor," they murmured.   
"Proceed."  
She swung her enviormental pack onto her back and ushed her crew out the doors and to the shuttle bays. Behind her trotted Max. She sighed as she rubbed her temples wearily at the fact she was tugging along her most annoying counterpart of this entire rescue mission. Max Eilerson. Him, out of all the people on the ship.  
Oh, this was going to be a long day.  



	3. Remembering What Was

Here's the third chapter. Enjoy!  
  
CHAPTER TWO  
The station was more devestating to see. Blown consols, scorched hulls, hanging wires to hissing conduits, the place put up quite a fight. Gideon focused the beams to where Dureena and another officer was wrestling to get the lifts open to C&C. "Any luck?"  
Dureena, sooty and sweaty, scowled at the captain before wiping her forehead. "Oh, very bad choice of words, captain," she clipped, looking at the doors. "The doors been pressurized and is sealed shut. Damn, and the controls aren't even working. The place is a mess, captain!" Her scowl deepened. "I don't see the point of going up there."  
"One reason, Dureena," he snipped back at her angry words. "To search for survivors. Stop thinking of the Drakh and start thinking of a way in! There are people trapped throughout the station. There has to be survivors up there." Please let Lochley survive this entire damned mess, he added to himself.   
His voice must have gotten through for she gritted her teeth, her yellow eyes flashing as she grunted and returned to the doors to try to get them opened. The officer, now poofed out, decided to struggle back. Angered by this, Dureena swung her dagger out and stabbed the metal bit by bit.   
Little by little, the doors' metal combustion began to degrade, and Gideon could have sworn to feel a breeze coming through. Finally, the door loosened and it swung open. The lift was as messy and hot as it was througout the station. He turned to his crew. "Geralin, Klyde, Ungantae, you're with me. The rest, stay behind and keep searching for survivors."  
"Aye, sir."  
In command. They strode into the lift. Dureena, tired and hot, decided to lean on the wall and recover her balance. Gideon and Ensign Malacite Klyde tucked their flashlights away as they began to pull on the rudder manually. Lt. Audrey Geralin and Dr. Frake Ungantae decided to take a rest as well.   
At the end of the line, both Klyde and Gideon were exhausted, beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads. They recovered their flashlights and their rifles as they sought their way through the doors to C&C. The doors gave in and it swung open.   
C&C was a smashed mess. Smoke billowed from consols. Consols' were burnt and sparks flew in the air. The stench of fear, blood and sweat was amoung them all. Bodies littered throughout the stations, on the floors, propped on chairs. One by one, they checked their life signs. Two dead as far as it went.   
Gideon was on his way to the viewscreen when he encounted a pile of blood and nearly stumbled on a blue earthforce uniform. Long auburn hair. He recodnized the lucid eyes that were facing the ceiling, her hands on a gaping wound as her fingers tried to put pressure to the wound. He dropped his rifle and his flashlight immediately and dropped to his knees. It was Lochley.   
He gathered her into his arms, propping her up to let her breath a little. She was gasping for the air; good. At least it ment she was still alive. He looked down on her face. Fatigue, command, confidence, horror, pain, fear...it all engulfed her face. He could almost feel it as much as he could see it, as if an electric current passed them by. It always had. It might always be.   
"Matthew..." Her voice was rasping like a whisper in the wind.   
He fought panic. "I'm here, Elizabeth," he hushed. "I'm here. You're going to be okay. The Excalibur's here. You're going to get help, okay?" He cradled her head and looked up, pass the smoke. "Dr. Ungantae! I need you, now! I found Captain Lochley!"  
Ungantae rushed over, with Dureena by his side. He flipped out a scanner and scanned Lochley's twisted body. His face became more and more worse. His mouth became a thin hard line as he watched the data flow into the screen. Gideon refused to expect the worst. No, not after all that's happened. Not after he lost the Cerebrus...  
"Her vital signs are critical," he finally reported. "She's lucky she came through all of this. She's suffering from shock and trauma. She's lost alot of blood, sir and she's suffering from a hemmerage to her side...if I don't get her to a Medlab soon enough...she'll die." His face shone what Gideon was worrying about.   
"Get a stretcher," he ordered faintly. "Get her down there."  
"Aye sir." He hustled away.  
Gideon looked down at Lochley. "Don't worry," he told her softly. "I'm going to get you out of this. I'll get you to Medlab and you're be back to your old, grouchy and commanding self again." To his surprise, she managed a faint smile that made him smile too. He refused to think she'll die.   
"I have ears, Matt," she whispered faintly. "I heard of my condition." She managed to focus her lucid eyes up at him. "You came. That was...unexpected."  
"Not exactly knight in shining armour, but..."  
She managed to smile, but her fatigue was enormous. Her soft features were sharpened at her cheekbones and her chin. Dark circles engulfed below her eyes. Her eyes were red and tired. Her body seemed lighter than usual. Whatever it was he was carrying. "Don't push it," she managed to whisper.   
That made him smile. "What happened?"  
Her eyes were filled with fright. "They were all around us, surrounding us," she said, her voice trembling. "We tried...I tried, to push them back while I could. But there were so many of them. They kept punching us and I had to...evacuate the station." She shook her head, fighting the demons off. "I was able to cripple some of the ships but some came back on us. I ordered the glass window to be shut, but I got caught and..."  
"It's okay," he conforted soothingly. "It's over. I'm here."   
Dureena watched as Gideon whispered confort to her. She never saw him so...conforting. All of a sudden, this nice side just appeared in him that she feared she will never see again. At least not directed to her face but to that injured captain who now lay in the heap. She turned away; this was getting too...touchy.   
A stretcher arrived as the medics gently lifted the injured Lochley onto the stretcher. Gideon was still there, holding her hand, promising he won't let go. Dureena vaguely saw through the thick smoke, but saw her say something before the medics left the command center, the link broken, Gideon left behind.  
"She must mean something," she commented, against her will.   
He turned sharply at her; now she was to be humiliated. Thank goodness for all the smog. What was wrong with her? She was damned nosy, but that came with her job as a thief; Mr. Eilerson's "noble profession, the second oldest in the book." She watched her captain's complextion; it changed.   
"Found anything?"  
She fumbled through her knotted fingers and held up a data crystal. "Recordings of the battle," she stated tightly. "I found it at one of the officer's bodies. An ensign. Apparently, he's dead now and I guess he wanted someone to find the recordings." She feebly handed it to her captain's outstretched palm.  
He studied it before handing it back. "Return to the Excalibur and have it analyzed," he ordered. The smog began to drift away as more stretchers arrived for the other crewmen's bodies. This was hell. This was Lochley's station. Lochley's crew. Her side of the galaxy and out of all the targets, this place was been picked. Why here? Why now?  
Throughout his life, he had seen the enemy attack here and there. He saw a strange ship kill his crew, later to be involved in the Shadow war and that it was a shadow that had crippled his vessel and destroyed it. He watched as he was saved by the mysterious technomage Galen. Now his homeworld was stormed in and contaminated by the drakh virus and he was searching for a cure to the virulent one. And now he stands in the command deck of the one he fell for littered with bodies and scorched with gun power from the enemy?  
"Captain?" Dureena asked. "Anything else?"  
He blinked. "No," he stuttered. "That'll be all."  
  
"God, this place was even in much worse condition than last time," Max remarked as he and Chambers walked down the corridors, searching for anything at all. They had left their crew over to find the rest of the personel while the two headed Down Below.  
"Last time?" Chambers asked, her eyes puckish. "Last time, your wife..." He glanced at her dryly making her correct it, "your ex-wife was being chased by that Adolf guy whom she owed. Funny, that was only... what?...a few weeks ago and when we return, only to find it devastated." She faced him. "You never told me how you scared him off though."  
He glanced at her. "A man never shows the key to all his tricks."  
"A man should never hide all the truths, Max."  
"That may be so," he countered. "But frankly, dear doctor, I still have all my cards at hand and none has been played."  
"Only because you are the most self-serving."  
"I only follow profit and motive," he defended huffily, his face coloured with the idea. He seemed to be remembering something behind his eyes. What was it? Chambers couldn't get anywhere closer to what he was thinking. Gosh, then they'll realize what a big mushy he was then.   
"I don't understand how you ever got this job," she sighed.  
He stopped as she continued to stide, unaware of his sudden stop. Red fourteen. He was here before. Yes, he was. That time when he was a representative for IPX to the Hak'Vir. Noble race. A man with a dark beard. The same mouth. He was remembering, yes. He remembered the same words spoken;   
"How the hell did they ever let you into this business in the first place?!" he shouted at him that day.  
"Same reason how you got into the Rangers," was his retort. A Ranger, yes. It had been almost nine years ago when he met that Ranger. He was thankful he had came, otherwise, he wouldnn't be here right now. Little did he know whatever happened afterwards, only that he was in direct contact with the great Shadow war. He wanted to check whatever happened to him afterwards, but he never had the time to check. Or maybe because he never bothered to.   
"Max?"  
"Max? Are you alright?" the ranger asked him.   
"Does it look like I'm alright?" he replied. "I have a bleeding gash on my forehead the size of mt. olympus that might make me fall into a concussion and you're asking me if I'm alright? Hah! I'm touched at your concern, Mr. Cole."  
Cole, yes, that was his name. Ranger Cole. What was his first name?  
"Shut up, Mr. Eilerson," came a woman's voice. "You'll draw attention and then we'll be either hanging by our throats or our throats slitted from ear to ear. How will it be?"  
Yes, the Ranger's friend. A...commander of some kind. Earthforce commander, of course! The lady friend of his forgotten ranger friend. The one Cole fell for considerably head over heels over but never mustered up to say it to her face. He wondered whatever happened to those two? Promoted, perhaps. Married? Fifty, fifty.  
"Max?" Chambers said, over him. "Are you alright?"  
He blinked out of the warp. "Sarah?"  
She smiled kindly. Surprisingly. But her eyes were filled with concern. "You okay, there?" she asked. "I mean, you seemed pretty far at that moment. Is there something wrong?" She looked at him again with concern of a doctor...or a friend? "Do you want to talk about it?"  
He shook his head. "I was just---remembering," he told her stalely. "The first time I came here on Babylon 5." He smiled small. "It was quite---quite a time I had." He looked at the sign: red fourteen. "I had an interesting arguement here that time."  
"You had an arguement here? Hah! That's an understatement!"  
"It lasted for over thirteen hours strait," he added.   
She dropped her jaw. "Thirteen hours, Max?!" she demanded. Unbelieveable. She knew the man was a blabbermouth, but never so straight forward for over thirteen hours straight! Her doctor side said impossible but the other was keen in interest. "Max, how many years ago was this?" she asked.  
"Almost six years ago now," he told her lightly, distantly.   
"The man who argued must have had a good time," she commented.   
"Yes," he agreed distantly. "It was...he saved my life. Him and his earthforce friend of his. I owed him mines." He shook his head. "Once I left this station, weeks later, news channel broadcast reported that Babylon 5 became independant. I never heard from him ever again. He was linked with the war. He was a Ranger."  
"Tell me everything, Max," she told him.   
"Well..."  
  
"Gotta hand it to you, Lieutenant," Trace said as he pulled on his spacesuit, "you've got a good team here." Matheson winced at the compliment as he pulled together his own gear on. Minutes later they will be in space and were going to be conducting their search for the pods that left from the station.   
"I suppose so, Mr. Miller," he agreed. buckling his boots.  
"So, our mission is to find the life pods...only?"  
Matheson looked up. he feared that even if he told him two million times, he still wouldn't have gotten it. "Yes, Mr. Miller," he told him relentlessly all over again. "We are only going out in the Starfuries to collect all the life pods that were ejected from Babylon 5...unless you plan to crash land on Epsilon 3. They're kind, simple folk, I have heard."  
Miller scowled as he finished buckling his silver enviormental jacket. "What's I'd like to know," he said out loud, "is how you get to go out on Starfuries. I know, I heard you're qualified for such a gig, but didn't Earthforce pass a rule not for telepaths to go off the ship? No offence or anything."  
The lieutenant rolled his eyes. What kind of wingman was he going to have, a questioning one? Might as well answer it. "Yes, the new PsiCorps rule passed it down," he replied as he finished buckling his shiny white boots; or was it gray? "But the rule does not apply to this sort of situation."  
"It must be a nice change for you, Lieutenant," he remarked. "Not holding down the fort for once."  
Matheson wanted to blurt, "Of course!" but instead replied, "Yes, it is." He then got up and took out his sphere cover for his head and pulled on the gloves onto his hands. "Well," he told Trace, "it's time to go. You will be on Beta Two, my wingman. You have your orders and don't try anything stupid."  
"Yes sir." In command. Him as a wingman. How interesting.  



	4. Wake-Up Call

Here's my next chapter! ^^ Enjoy!  
  
CHAPTER THREE  
Gideon walked into the cluttered MedLab down in Babylon 5. The Excalibur was cluttered up with Earthforce and Babylon 5 officers all wounded in one way or another. He came for not only a checkup, but also for a visit. He came up to an medic. "Where is the captain kept in?"  
The medic pointed to the main recovering room. One person was lying there. "She was hit pretty badly," he told her. "Another few minutes and there would have been no chance for her to have lived through. She's recovering now...you can visit her, Captain." He left.   
Gideon crept into her room. Her eyes fluttered; why was he creeping in the first place? To scare the hell out of her? Her features were still gaunt, but no long sharp. But they were still fatigued; the dark circles never went away and nor did the sharp pop of her high cheekbones. Her arms looked thin and made her top under uniform made it look loose from afar. She groaned a bit and shifted beneath the bulky white blankets, her brows burrowed a bit as she winced and shifted a bit more to where he was going to sit. "Gideon?"  
He sat down and took her hand. "I'm here."  
She frowned without opening her eyes. "You don't have to creep around."  
He smiled and kept holding her hand. "They said you're...recovering," he told her honestly. "You took a pretty bad blow back there. We're still recovering all your officers on the station and I have Starfuries out there recovering the life pods." He paused. "Not exactly your saviour but..."  
"Hey," she interrupted softly, her condition fraile. "I'm glad you came in the first place. Not exactly home-coming or welcome here but I'm...grateful that you came here or else we'd be blown to oblivion in the first place. I just wished it was under...better conditions."  
He raised a brow. "You're getting all touchy on me, Elizabeth."  
She frowned slightly. "That's the best you can get out of me, Captain."  
He snickered before looking at the schematics before sighing. "I---What happened to you?" he asked her gently, avoiding her grumpy side. After all, getting wounded makes her rather grouchy. "I never seen you so gaunt that God, you look anorexic! Have you just suddenly got lost on the station without food or did you just stopped eating altogether?"  
She managed a rueful grin. "So much for my saviour," she teased gently beefore sighing. "Before the attack, I got...I guess I got under a flu. A flu has been passing but I got...only the bad colds and stuff that I couldn't go to work that day. When I came back, I have practically two million papers to do all piled up on my table. I wish Corwin was here to get them all done---"  
"Corwin?" he inquired.   
"My first officer," she replied for him. "He's a good officer. He was third in command at the time the President was captain and Captain Ivanova was the number two. He was given the priviliage. And he's damned-right efficient. But, I gave him shore leave. I guess he heard of the attack and might be on his way here now."  
"Work," he mused, "always makes you lose the stomach."  
"And I thought the Sacred Omega was bad enough to lose your appetite."  
He laughed; rarely did he laugh. "I've got Matheson and my expert resident-pilot searching for those pods," he told her. "Thought you want to know." He took her hand again. "I just want you to know that we're going after the guys who knocked you beneath you feet. They contaminated our world, and now they try to destroy the last of the Babylon stations. I won't allow them to."  
She sighed heavily. "Your word as a captain or as my friend?"  
"Both," he replied.   
  
"Beta Two to Beta Leader," Trace hailed.   
The fifteenth hail this hour. Now what did he want to know? At least he was hailing under personal codes. At least the others won't listen. Why won't he just go into Trace's mind and made him eject from the chair? It was a mistake to suggest him for wingman. Might was well get over it. "Yes, Mr. Miller?"  
"Sir, this is the fifteenth time we are sweeping the same sector," he complained. "How long are we suppose to keep this up? I'm starting to think about taking up the offer of crash-landing in Epsilon 3. I think they have much more better sights than hyperspace."  
True; all surrounding them was the red and black swirls of hyperspace. It became incredibly boring in time. The hyperspace was made for travelling to be faster and easier, but hyperspace cane be incredibly dull. Anything could happen in this period of time."  
"Do you seriously believe the life pods could get in here?"  
Matheson dropped back into reality. Trace was still on the other end. He gulped and returned to his normal crisp and commanding tone. Thank goodness he wasn't the telepath. "It could be possible, Mr. Miller," he replied. "We will continue to investigate this matter, Mr. Miller."  
"But---" he began to blubber.  
"No buts, Mr. Miller, Matheson out." He cut off communications and laid back. He finally got to hop onto a Starfury and finally go on search and rescue missions. Sometimes, he felt that the regulations for telepaths were just damned. He always wanted to be in Earthforce, only to learn that he cannot be allowed off the ship. Does Earthforce believe that they were renegades or something?  
He remembered his times on the PsiCorps. It wasn't the best experience, but it was indeed resourceful. The destruction of PsiCorps; it was a damned shame but it had to do. Time for telepaths to choose between PsiCorps or their own lives. Sometimes, he wondered how telepaths actually came to being. ESP was only for the open-minded ones, not for aa third of mankind. There was a rumour going on that the Vorlons did it. Then again, the Vorlons were no longer in the galaxy, but in another world with the Shadows and all the others.   
If the Vorlons did this to them, were they then instruments of war if their other counterparts, the Shadows ever struck them. Matheson hated to be used. Always have. Always will. He could remember the rogue telepath's voice as him and the shuttlecraft take off; you're free now John.  
Not with all these memories behind me. Or with Trace as my wingman for that matter, he added ruefully. His indicators flashed; it was a while since he had drove a Starfury. Within the Earthforce Acadamy, he couldn't help but remember the days when he was casted aside with all the other telepaths. And here he was, first officer aboard the finest ships, Excalibur, and was commanding a Starfury. Despite his troubling past, nothing could be related to flying his own Starfury.   
"Beta Leader," Beta Seven reported. "I'm picking up something at 60 by 75 by 84 sir. It's sending out a distress signal but I can't seem to decipher it. The object where it is coming from dosen't seem to be a Babylon 5 life pod...in fact, i don't know who it is, but it's definitely a life pod."  
"Roger that, Beta Seven," Matheson acknowledged. "Beta Squad, maximum burn to sector eighteen, bearing marks 60 by 75 by 84. Stay clear of the object until I give the orders on what to do with...it." He heard muttered "yes sirs", all of them regulational. None of them were exactly the friendliest people in the entire force, all of them were bound by regulation. But, that's the least of his problems.   
As his Starfury slugged towards the object, Matheson was getting a clear view of the object. An alien life pod, as big as an standard starship life pod with strange wires intersecting above and around it. It was strange, eerie with a green glow that made it look like it was some kind of alien vegetable. Matheson could sence a strange life form inside. "I want you all to maintain a distant from that object," he ordered. "Beta Seven and Nine, lock grappling clamps on it and tow it back to the station. Beta five and Six, follow. The rest of you, stay with me."  
Four of them broke of formation and the rest impulsed to cover the holes as they continued to speed through hyperspace. From his comm system, he could hear Trace grumble something. Matheson cleared his throat. "But the sound of it, Mr. Miller," he said, "you don't sound rather pleased."  
"Of course I'm not," he replied darkly. "I'm still in hyperspace."  
Matheson smothered a chuckle. "That's just too bad, Mr. Miller," he replied. "Just too bad. You might as well enjoy the ride," He then remained neutral and could've sworn he heard the pilot grumble all over again.   
  
"Have you ever spoken to him since?" Chambers asked as they salvaged through some wreckage down at the lower compartments. Their crew was behind them, in the same condition, rumaging through the debris and remains of a once-walled up corridor. Everything was a smashed mess.   
"Hell, no," Max replied, throwing away pieces of burnt metal. "Weeks later, I found out the Babylon 5 had broke away from Earth and were involved in this Shadow war. Then again, ISN was an instrument of Clark's and so they were always lying about what was truly going on in Babylon 5."  
"Must have been tough," she commented.   
"He was directly involved in the damned war," he stated firmly. "Him and his courageous idiots. And the won, which I was thankful for. The guy nearly hit me with that damned pike of his while we were chasing my to-be-thieves." He shook his head. "Overall, it was my first experience in Babylon 5 I would never experience again."  
"Must be," she remarked, summoning a medic to take over the body she was examining that she had found beneath the debris. She said to the medic, "Looks like he's suffering from some concussion to the cerebral lobe. MedLab four. He needs stat immediately."  
"Aye, ma'am." Curtly but efficiently.   
Chambers wiped her hands and joined Max at the other end. "Found anything?"  
"Nothing much," he said grimly. "Nothing but debris, metal scrapes, blown out consols and the usual." He shook his head and looked around. "God, this place is one hell of a mess. One huge mess. I never knew the Drakh could do such damage to the station before."  
"You should have seen Earth," she said sourly.   
"I didn't," he admitted. "I wasn't there at the time, remember? But I've heard of the casualties along with the damned plague, and let me tell you, it was good I wasn't there." He shook his head. "But I think the Captain has something in mind once the cure is found; to shove both the plague and it's cure up the Drakh's behind."  
"I suppose," she said carefully as she analyzed some more of the debris. "During the last decade or so, we've been in wars more than any timeline up here. The Shadow War, Earth Civil War, the Interstellar Alliance-Centauri Prime war, the telepath war, and now we're in to the Drakh war? Sounds like we're never going to have any peace around here."  
Max remained silent as he finished brushing and analyzing through his side of the corridor. The last few decks was nothing. Nothing here, nothing there, nothing anywhere. What were they looking for? Dead bodies or more to grieve on the impending list? As a strange fog began to emerge from another part of the corridor, Max was starting to remember more things. The Hak'Vir. The running in the hallway. The explosion in the cargo bays. It was as if it happened yesterday.  
"Max," Chambers said. "Max, are you here?"  
He blinked. "You were saying...?"  
She frowned slightly, her face crumpling back a bit. "Max," she said firmly. "I said it sounds like we're never going to have any peace around here." She frowned again, this time deeper when she saw something very disturbing on the scrapes of metal. She bent down, her clothes already heavy on soot, to analyze something. Max joined in.   
"Isn't that a remnant of a lo-tech bomb?" Max asked, bewildered.   
She nodded and looked at him. "How'd you know?"  
Max shrugged at the thought. "One of my friends used that bomb while I was here back then," he explained, "to get rid of some of the Hak'Vir that was after the cargo. Pretty efficient for a lo-tech." He frowned, his creased face crumpling even more. "What's it doing here, I wonder."  
"I'd like to find out too," Chambers agreed. "Hudson, Lewis, come." 


	5. Digging Up the Past

Here's the next installment!  
  
CHAPTER FOUR  
The Excalibur was docked outside of Babylon 5, floating in space. It made Gideon think about the stories of King Arthur. The Round Table in the conference room reminded him of the Knights of the Round Table. The legendary sword that made Arthur king sworn by oath to protect the country and rise it to victory. Sometimes, he just felt like Arthur.   
"Captain." Ah, it was only Dureena.  
Gideon wearily turned around. How long has it been? Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? He turned around to see Dureena with the data crystal he had assigned for her to read back at the Excalibur. He frowned slightly as he asked, "You're done already, Dureena?"  
She was taken aback. "Of course I'm done. Three hours of work."  
He was surprised; three hours he had been busy on the station repairs? He had already called back to Interstellar Alliance headquarters on Minbar to tell President Sheridan about the crisis. Then he was hailed by three Warlock-class starships to come and help repair the damage to the entire station. It was then followed by a communique from Matheson and then a casualties report before finally repairing the computer systems himself. Three hours?  
Dureena, a bit shaking about his depht of thought, proceeded to showing him what she learned. The inserted the data crystal in a feeder and watched the list of computer systems go on screen. Then, there was a video footage of the entire incident. "This surveilliance camera started the minute the Drakh entered into normal space, Captain."  
Gideon watched with tired eyes. Lochley was on command deck minding her own consols. It must've been her from the long red hair to the stiff Earthforce uniform. Yes, that was her. But Gideon could tell through the uniform, she was gaunt. Really gaunt. Something must've came up as well. Officers walking here and there and everywhere. Where was her first officer? Then he remembered; shore leave.   
Something happened. It must have been the jump point. "I'm picking up an energy surge from the jump point," an ensign called from his station. "It's massive...more than one vessel. They're not responding to our hails...I can't get a clear picture but..."  
He was interrupted by blue light; the jump point. Lochley jerked her head up to the window and he could tell she wasn't pleased as her fingers began to prance at the consols quickly. "Damn!" he heard her curse out loud. "That is one hell of a huge drakh fleet." The officers were astonished. She turned her head. "Red alert! Battlestations!"  
He watched as the picture began to become really bad as the station was hit with alot of force. The lights went down and it was now darker. The emergancy klaxon was shrilling like an annoying kid. "Status!" he heard Lochley demand out loud. He didn't hear the reply, but by the looks of it, it wasn't good.  
After some really bad moments with the audio, he managed to hear Lochley order, "Ensign! Start relaying an automatic distress beacon!" After a muffled reply from the ensign, she began to program the distress beacon. After its launch, then it went black. Gideon slammed a bony fist onto the consol. Dureena frowned slightly. "That's all that was recorded."  
"Dammit," Gideon muttered beneath his breath. "Bad timing."  
"I'm sorry, Captain," she apoligized even though there was no need to. "That was a pretty bad timing. The computer reported that there was some sort of a power failure. But that wasn't what the sensor memory grid recalled." She accessed a few buttons, since when did she know how to use them?, and opened up another file. A series of numbers. She pointed at one. "This was the time the surveillence camera started up," she explained. "And this was when the grid came down. Now, that may sound possible, but the computer says it isn't."  
"Are you telling me someone deliberately pulled the system down?"  
"The computer states it is," Dureena replied, clicking on another folder. A series of numbers lined with the other folder. But it was screwed up as far asGideon could tell. "The sensors of the computer monitored any personnel coming through and from ever consol throughout the entire battle. Something didn't add up." She magnified a series of numbers. "This states that before the camera came down, there was a five minute hole punch. Someone had caused the fuses to burn out, under command certification."  
"Command certification?" Gideon repeated hollowly. "That can't be right... considered the crew died, the monitor would have been savaged out to see what happened. Why would anyone of the command crew want to cut the play off by a couple of minutes?"  
"I don't know," she replied. "But that's not all. The computer states that someone also did some sort of computer diagnostics during the blasted attack; it was relayed down somewhere in the gray section of the entire station. The computer can't pinpoint its exact location due to the fact that there was a battle going on."  
"I want the names of the entire crew that was present on C&C at the time the Drakh started showing up," he ordered. "Damn, I don't like the sound of this one bit. If we have a troublemaker on board, I'd like to know before we get blown out into spacedust."  
Dureena rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yes sir."  
Once she had left, Gideon averted his eyes back to the stars of the Observation deck. The glass was a bit charred from some energy beam as the floor was uneven and rusty. The stars floated in the blackness of space, full of adventure, full of unknown secrets. Back then, Gideon apprriciated the challenge. But over the years, after death and tragedy, he also discovered that it was a cold, uninviting and calculating kind of place. What secrets lie beyond the rim? No one knew.   
The computer readout stated that there was a call coming in from Minbar. The Interstellar Alliance Headquarters. Gideon gulped and recieved the transmission. A bearded face, brown. Warm but defiant eyes flashed. Civilian uniform. The one who had led through the Shadow war and won. The one who rebelled against President Clark and won. The one who helped form the Interstellar Alliance and was now the president. It was none other than Sheridan. "Captain Gideon."  
He tilted his head with respect. "President."  
"I have hailed the three warlock ships," he told Gideon. "They will be arriving through the jump point in approximately three hours. The Scutum, the Pavo and the Corona Borealis are their names and they will be docking with supplies and cargo and well as more maintenence to fix up the mess those blasted drakh has caused yet again." He paused, calming down. "This is the fifth time this has happened and I'm getting sick of it. It's as if they want to start another war. They could've done this six years ago!"  
"Maybe they were waiting for the moment of vunerability," Gideon suggested. "Now that Earth has been quarantined with the plague and almost the entire Joint Chiefs are stranded behind Earth Dome, they have a chance to strike back at us for what happened almost then years ago."  
"I wish we were able to fix this all up years ago," Sheridan admitted. "But it's too late now. God knows where else they want to pollute this wrecked plague of theirs. We have very little to give, but we're willing to help each other. Hopefully they will find no trouble in their path here. I have stated that you will brief the three captains on this matter and their part in them."  
"Yes sir," Gideon replied, before frowning a little. "Brief them what?"  
"Well," the president stated. "I haven't exactly filled them in. I do not know the full situation and rather you tend to them of what the station needs. Once Captain Lochley is up and about, I'm sure she'll decide to help. But once this is over, you'll have, and I mean you'll have, to get a move on it. We only have less than four years now to find that damned cure." He paused. "It wasn't easy to find this out all along. The last two years are hell to me, both personally and politically. It wasn't easy to get the captain of the Corona Borealis to come to your aid."  
"Who is the captain, sir?" he asked.   
"Captain Susan Ivanova," he replied after a moment of silence. "She has served under me back at Io and again at Babylon 5.She was suppose to run B5 once I began my presidency, but she apparently requested for a transfer. I don't blame her for not coming, but she's all I can spare. Don't mind her if she gets to stubborn on you, Gideon."  
"Yes sir." For a while, they just stared at each other. Gideon find it hard to believe that this man he was talking to was Lochley's ex-husband. Hard to believe that he was talking to a war hero of the Earth-Minbari war. Hard to believe that he saved the galaxy from the Shadows and the mysterious Vorlons. Hard to believe that he renegaded against Clark and won. Hard to believe that he rose in power to become the President, to forge the peace of the Interstellar Alliance. He'd be damned.   
He saw that Sheridan was beginning to squirm. "How is Lochley?" he quivered.  
Gideon found himself gulping down a lump down his throat. "Her condition was pretty bad when we found her," he replied dryly. "But she's getting better. And more sarcastic by the minute."   
He watched Sheridan grin. "That sounds more like her." He then straightened his posture at the sight of his own adolescent-type of thoughts and told him in his usual crisp and cool way, "Keep me updated on the current situation aboard the station. That will be all, Captain Gideon." He then blinked off.   
Gideon stared at the black screen for a moment. He was left pretty off for a moment. He thought of Captain Lochley for a brief moment; she couldn't have shut off the entire surveillence camera. If only he had came sooner and realized this type of situation. This was going to be rough, and he knew it. He could feel it in his bones as he shuddered at the thought.He was going to have to play it hard. "Computer, open surveillence camera 0-5-7 segment of drakh attack."  
"File opened," the computer replied dutifully, as usual.  
"Computer, play file."  
The segment of the battle. The ugly feature that the drakh had came in. The ugly announcement of the evacuation. Lochley speaking to the ensign and to the distress call. He watched at the moment Lochley had finished the distress call. It was dark, but he made out a face wearing an Earthforce uniform. He couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, but he knew it was from the consol from the side of the burnt out system, keying something, then turning back to the camera before it shot out. The pieces were ripped off here and there, but he noticed that the the uniform had one strip on the shoulders; he or she was a lieutenant.  
Gideon turned to one of the earthforce officers from his ship, who had came down to begin repairments; actually, to oversee it since Matheson was out trying to hunt down the escape pods. There was his office, a dark-skinned man whom was down by the navigations array consol, overseeing the latin maintience officer who was trying to fix the entire thing. In front of him lay his work; wires, some charred and some just entangled like a nest. "Lieutenant Hovan."  
The dark man strode over with all the power in it. He tilted his head with respect, nothing more. Great; at this rate, Gideon would be pampered with all the formality without meaning it. How much will he put up to this? "Yes sir!" was all he heard from most of the crew; no meaning, no certain respect for who he was, just the damned position.   
"Lieutenant," he said stiffly, less formal and more hardened with no welcome "I want you to compile for me the names of all the officers that were present during the battle in C&C."  
The man frowned but tipped his head anyway and spun off.   
"I hate that," he snarled under his breath but turned back to the stars. The Excalibur was out, floating in the vastness of space. The light, the hope. He hated this more than ever; why was all the pressure on him? The job, the name, gosh, there was even a weekly update on their current duties.   
"Computer, put on ISN."  
"Acknowledged."  
The screen flickered on to a woman on the screen. "It is time for the babylon 5 update," the reporter said in her professional voice. "We have updated information that the famous station has just been attacked by some Drakh attack vessels. No word on how many crewmen have died, the status of the station itself and whoever survived it. The vessel Excalibur has saved the station from destruction and has sent word to military vessels to redevouz for repairment. We have also a video clip from Minbar on the President's thoughts of the situation."  
A tall, imposing figure. Slight frown, defiant eyes, brown hair pulled back from his face with a beard. Sheridan. "I feel devastated over the recent attack from the Drakh. We understand the hatred they feel towards the station, the station I commanded for four years, and these assults on our territory has increased. First the plague on Earth and now we're on a verge of war. it's insane..."  
The reporter was back. "No word yet on the casualties, but our prayers are to the families whose sons and daughters are posted on the station," she continued. "The Excalibur is still sailing the stars for a cure, but will be slightly delayed for the fact that the station is being repaired..."  
"Computer, off."  
Suddenly, a loud crash rocked the floor beneath them. Gideon slid, his hands outstretched to grab the edge of the consol. "What the hell---?" was what came out of his lips the minute the entire station straightened.  
A screen flickered open. It was Max. "Captain," he said in a hurried voice, "we've just picked up an energy spike at brown fourteen. Same remnants as we found a short while ago throughout the station." His brows knitted tightly. "I think the station is being hijacked."  
"Oh, great," he muttered angrily, "just what we need."  
The doors plowed open to C&C and in came a limping Lochley. Her hair was down and she was in half a uniform, blue trousers and a white plaid top. It was topped by a black vest with her Earthforce insignia. Her hair was down and she was limping to the consols.   
"Look into the matter," Gideon ordered quickly, "I'll talk to you later. Gideon out." He pressed a button to end the transmission when he jumped to interject from Lochley's out-reached hand. "What are you doing up and about?" he inquired suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"  
"Oh, hell, Gideon," she spat. "What's the point of being in bed when you can't relax? I've been watching the ceiling for hours thinking how my precious station is doing. I'm restless. If it means getting up and about with only half my wounds healed, then so be it."  
"Captain---"  
"Please," she insisted. "I know this station. There's a bunch of terrorists on board, if that's what you're thinking about these small explosions here and there. They've been here before the Drakh attacked. We were about to resolve the problem when, you know---"  
Another explosion rocked the station.  
"Another explosion on brown sector twenty!" one reported.   
"Power shortage to blue level!"  
Lochley turned to Gideon. "You'll need my help," she insisted. "I know what they're doing." She looked up with a stir of defiance at the starship captain with a certain earnesty in her eyes.   
He didn't have to think. He already knew. "Let's go!" he told her. 


	6. No Rest in Heaven

Here's te next chapter. ^^  
  
CHAPTER FIVE  
"Beta Leader, I'm picking up something from the sensors," Miller said over the PA system. Matheson looked about at the information that Miller had just stated over his system. "It's in bisector 5 by 70 by 86. It looks really big on my sensors; could be a cargo vessel---"  
"---or a Drakh war vessel," Matheson quipped, adjusting his sensors. "Okay, team. Move in to bisector 5 by 70 by 86 on half impulse and keep you eye on the sensor releases. We wouldn't want that thing to move without us knowing." He gunned up his engines and adjusted speed to half impulse.   
His fighter started to fire up as he headed towards the sector. Hyperspace surrounded them as they headed towards something. The thing grew bigger and bigger till---  
"All hands, retreat! Now! It's a Drakh war vessel!"  
All the Beta fighters fired up their engines to maximum burn as they spun one hundred and eighty degrees the opposite direction. Matheson watched from sensors that the vessel had come alive. This was bad. Really bad. His fighter was the last to turn as he watched from the overhead view that the Drakh vessel was cominng about after them. His hands grabbed the controls as his fighter swerved to meet up with the others.   
"The Drakh vessel's still in pursuit," Beta Four reported.   
"It's a Drakh vessel, dammit!" Miller snarled from his fighter. "What the hell do you expect? Little kiddie play? This is an enemy vessel and I'm sure as hell they're intended of biting our damned heads off---" His snarl died and was replaced by a desperate tone. "Lieutenant Matheson! The Drakh vessel is powering up main guns."  
Oh, hell! he thought in his mind. Just what we need. "All hands, evasive!"   
A deadly green phaser ripped through hyperspace and towards them. Matheson was inches away from getting his fighter fried as he had evasived to the left with Miller and two others. The rest pulled tightly the opposite direction as their fighters began to scramble their way towards a hypergate and to get reinforcements.  
Reinforcements...he thought grimly. His mind suddenly snapped. "Beta Leader to team!" he snapped to the audio loop speaker. "Don't head towards the jumpgate otherwise we'll be putting Babylon 5 and the Excalibur into danger as well!"   
His final words barely got out when blue light spewed into view. Blackness of space and the twinkling of stars shimmered in a distance. Matheson could've sworn he could see the Excalibur and Babylon 5 drifting off somewhere. He pulled himself steady and gritted his teeth for his bad timing. "Oh, hell," he muttered, "the Drakh vessel is following. Miller! Hail Babylon control. State our situation out here!"  
"Aye, sir!" came a quick responce. "Buoyant sent. Apparently, someone else is in command."  
Matheson frowned. "Who?!"  
  
"Okay, the first minute that you spot an energy spike, relay that data to Gideon and the squads, is that clear?" Dureena asked, brushing her hair back absently as the Earthforce officers nodded and went to their posts. She sat back on a chair and sighed heavily; this wasn't the life. A little over a while ago, techs were picking up explosions of neutreno gases and other types of grenades and winded up pulling Gideon and Lochley off their posts to hunt down some terrorist hijackers along with Eilerson and Chambers, leaving her to hold down the fort. And with Matheson out hunting---  
"We're picking up a signal from the Beta squad!" yelled an officer.   
"What the hell are you waiting for? The next war?! Patch it through!" She swerved on her seat to meet up with the capsuled face of Miller. It was dark all around him as she could pinpoint the lights that were highlighting his face like the consols having a dance. "Trace! Am I ever so glad to see you face---" she began to say.   
"Not as glad as what I have to say," Miller said, definitly disturbed. "Dureena, there's a Drakh war vessel pursuing us in hyperspace and with the jumpgate open here, the lieutenant thinks that we just might have a big problem with station security."  
"Oh, hell!" she cried angrily, bolting up. Some officers jumped, startled at her angry outbursts. "Why now? Both captains are off on a hunt for these hijackers and here you tell me that there's a Drakh war vessel headed this way?!" She let out a growl before controlling her fierce fury that enraged the entire C&C right now. "Okay, I'll talk to the captain...both of 'em...and I'll see what I can do." She hit the transmission button.   
She scowled at her misfortune. "Dureena to Gideon..."  
  
"Gideon here." In the dark areas of the brown sector, Gideon croutched down for a moment, rifle at hand and signalling fellow squad members to hold position as he paid attention to a call. "Dureena, there better be one hell of a good reason while you're hailing me because I have some pretty hearing-sensitive kind of hijackers at hand right now---"  
"Captain, I don't have time," she prowled. "Matheson and his little band of merry men just intercepted a Drakh war vessel hidden in hyperspace. Now they're in pursuit and a bunch of idiots he has for a squad just opened the jumpgate and leaving us vunerable to an attack!" She ended with a burst of fustration.   
Perfect timing, he told himself bitterly. "Okay, send the Excalibur out and get all the fighters out to stop the war vessel," he ordered flatly as he peered into the darkness, as if something was to spring up and kick him in the face. "When will the three vessels Sheridan assigned to the station be here at?"  
"ETA twenty minutes," she replied tersely.  
"Not good enough," he mumbled. "Okay, proceed with the headings."  
"Captain, I'm not a military officer like you. I'm a thief."  
Gideon raised a brow. "I'm sure you have a few little tricks in mind, Dureena," he told her reassuringly. "Keep me posted, Gideon out."  
From the darkness, he could make over Lochley's limp form. She still looked disturbingly thin despite all the vitamins and minerals all the doctors had injected to her and her hair seemed unusually bright all of a sudden. Her wide eyes seemed to make her face look very thin but the depth in it seemed almost the same. Only worried and anxious. "So? What's up up there?"  
"Matheson intercepted a Drakh war vessel," he told her grimly, training his aim to the darkness of the sector. "Now the entire sector's in danger. I've got every fighter and ship at our disposal but the three ships the President assigned here won't be here for...oh, another twenty minutes. By then, the battle will really be heated up."  
"Or the fusion reactor," she said sarcastically. "This way." Their boot heels hit the floor as the snuck through the sector's holder. Unfortunately, a beep began to fill the air. Gideon watch as Lochley spun around, to look above. "Oh, hell! Duck!"  
She jumped and grabbed a fistful of Gideon's black uniform top and pushed him aside near the wall. He was bewildered; she had a strong grip despite the thiness of her outward appearances. He slammed onto the cold metal wall with his tailbone given a wake-up whack while Lochley landed shoulder first on the wall. Her head slammed not too hard but she winced in terrible pain. He came to the call. "Are you alright?" he asked gently.   
She shook it away violently. "Don't mind me!" she snapped. "Mind that device!"   
Gideon looked up to see a miniture flying areo gun device swooning in the air and shooting at random points near the squad, which was scattered throughout the entire sector. He immediately raised his rifle and began shooting it blindly. It was incredibly dark, and it was practically a miracle that she had detected it.   
They were getting no where.   
All of a sudden, a black-gloved hand came from behind of Lochley and wrapped it tightly around her lips. All he heard was muffled yells and violent kicking and screaming as she was hauled to her feet. Gideon spun around, but was too late. Lochley was being pulled into the darkness. She had wounded her captor by a bite at the hand, but she was struggling the grip. "Matthew! Help!" she cried painfully, wincing, as she entered into darkness.   
His mind started racing. "Kelper! Continue to fire and then search for the hijackers! I'm going after Captain Lochley!" Without another word, he clicked some energy sacs in and then sped into the darkness.   



	7. Running and Go Boom

Here's the next chapter!  
  
CHAPTER SIX  
"Okay, the trail ends here." Eilerson stood over a sand dune of gun powder as he waited for Chambers to catch up with him. She appeared out of the darkness, her dark eyes spinning over to take a look at the end of the trail they had been following since they had found the remnants of the no-fusion bomb.   
Chambers bent down to study the powder. "That's odd," she said finally. "The trail just... stops here. I don't get it."  
Eilerson shrugged. "Maybe they found out what they were doing and dumped it out."  
"These are hijackers, Max, not ordinary amateurs," she pointed out. "Hijackers don't just start blowing up parts of the station for fun. They don't just leave shells of their bombs behind and run off and they surely don't just make a trail and just dump it out half way through. No...these are masterminds. They obviously are up to something."  
Max groaned. "That's why I leave this stuff to the military."  
Sarah Chambers ignored him. "Something's up," she said finally. "I can smell it."  
"Either that or you're smelling yourself," he said smugly.   
Suddenly, something came down from above. Not thinking, Max grabbed the bewildered doctor and swung her aside to the wall. She slammed heavily against some metal containers before rolling over to the floor. Max landed heavily to the wall, his right temple meeting the wall with a heavy impact. He turned to see the thing swing back into darkness.   
"What the hell was that?" she hissed in the sudden deadly silence.   
"I'm about to find out," he told her, lifting a PPG from an inside pocket and creeping over towards where the metal rod had slithered back in. Funny thing was, rods don't slither their way back into darkness unless it was either a strange alien animal or someone was dragging it inside. Max grunted to himself; it was pitch black. How was he to combat if he couldn't see?!  
The rod lurched out again as Max swung to his right; the rod missed him by millimetres. He then ducked as the rod spun inward and then rushing to his right. The person missed again, and now Max could see that; black gloves. Human or alien? he asked himself as he jumped back , PPG at hand.   
"Max, look out!" he heard Dr. Chambers scream.   
Too late. A leg spun out and slammed the PPG out of his grip and soring out a hand. The gun hit the wall with a clunck! and dropped uselessly to the floor. The foot lashed out again, but Max ducked before it hit him at the stomach. He rolled over and grabbed a rusty metal rod from the side. Unconfortable to the touch, he took it out and swung it blindly. It missed, but certainly made the person stagger back into the darkness...  
...only to lash out completely into the light. A person covered in black from head to toe and was roughly the same height as Max with a perfect kung fu stance. Just what he needed; a karate master against a loud-mouth linguist. And in the assalent's hand was a...  
Minbari fighting pike?  
Marcus activated his fighting pike, nearly hitting Max in the head. "Hey, watch where you're setting that off!" he protested as they ran after their fleeing suppose-to-be-killers. He fought panic. "Sorry," he panted...  
Bang! He got hit at the jaw. Pain exploded all around his jawbone as he reeled back, stars exploding in his vision. Once he got his vision back, he only saw the pike heading towards him again. He quickly ducked and slid back. But he was too slow and was hit at the back by the pike. Pain erupted even more as he dropped to the floor with a crash. He couldn't get up. His wounds hurt like hell.   
He only heard the slurred words, "Time to get you back, IPX man."  
"Not if I can help it!" came a voice, followed by a slam at the head. All he heard next was the pike dropping and a body collapsing heaplessly on the floor.   
Hands spun him so that his chest and face was facing the ceiling for he was too weak to actually do it himself. "Ouch," he muttered as he watched Chambers studying his wounds carefully in examination. He almost forgot for a moment she was a medical doctor as she began to heal them with her simple first aid kit. "How do you feel?"  
"Gee, how would you feel if someone came over your head with that damned pike..." He stopped his sarcastic speech when he mentioned the pike. The Minbari fighting pike. The one that Marcus used. Or, at least, identical to it. He got up weakly despite Chambers' protests, and started his way to the pike. He grabbed it with a weak hand and shook it twice. It activated itself and returned to a small tube that was handheld and was travel-easy. He watched it with deep respect and keeness.   
"What's wrong, Max?" Chambers asked.  
"He used this," he said softly. "He nearly lost my nose with it, yet it saved me..."  
Chambers looked up. "We better get going," she said to him gently. "Gideon and the others expect us to find something..."  
  
Slam! Dureena slid through the floor as the station was hit by a Drakh phaser fire. She cursed silently to herself as she pulled herself up. "Oh, hell, do something for crying out loud!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. "I ain't no military man!"  
Another explosion rocketted the station as she reeled over again, only to land on someone and pulled her upright again. Startled, she turned to see a human in a B5 uniform with blue eyes. "You must be Dureena Nafeel," he said despite the buzzing behind them and outside the station. "Let the first officer handle this." With that, he turned to main controls and looked at the stars. "Fighters, this is Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin from Babylon controls, steady fire to the Drakh vessel, all at one," he ordered curtly.   
The first officer, Dureena thought keenly, watching in awe.   
"Babylon controls, this is Lt. John Matheson, Beta Leader and first officer to the Excalibur," came a staticy reply. "Rerouting power to main gun points. Target...propulsion systems of the enemy craft. Give me a scan of the durability of the vessel to my controls."  
"Aye, Beta Leader." He turned to a technician. "Pull up Defence Grid."  
"Defence grid up, sir."  
There was a beep. Dureena spun to the computer control to see a red light flashing. The data that Gideon asked for! Apparently, a lieutenant was suppose to finish the job, oh, but what the hell? She scanned the data given immediately. Instead, a dossier appeared of all the names of the officers on board. Of all of them, one specifically was on Babylon 5 for six years.  
"Computer, download file of Lt. Catalina Santiago-Mereza."  
"Download complete." The dossier for the lieutenant appeared. She was a stiff-looking officer with a strict set of brown eyes, drawn back blonde hair that definitly didn't match her coarse set of brown eyebrows and a straight and stiff jaw. Her uniform practically sucked herself inward that Dureena could start counting her ribs. Her face...  
"Computer, reconvigure the battle play, mark 0-5-7 again."  
"Dowloading battle 0-5-7." The screen shifted as the station was hit again. She narrowed her face as the officers were racing to keep their stations operational. At the corner, she saw the same officer, her stiff blonde hair slicked back, her eyes darting from side to side as if someone were to catch her. Then, her bony fingers raised up to hit the consols---  
"Computer, magnify image left corner, one hundred max, grid 50 by 70."  
"Magnifying image." Now Mereza was up close. Dureena could see the sweat that had built up in her forehead and the smears of smoke and dust on her cheekbones. She lifted her hand again, darted her eyes side to side before hitting the controls on the panel---  
"Computer, replay the order given from the panel bearing...5-6-4."  
"Reconfiguring the entire scenerio bearing 5-6-4." The computer then beeped. "Authorization given to panel was fuse out fuses 9-4-4 to surveillance camera 0-5-7 under authorization code 40-89-666. Command authorization completed in 14:09:59 hundred hours, given date."  
"Oh, hell," she muttered. "So someone did fuse out the wires." She snickered at the picture of the Lt. Santiago-Mereza as another explosion rocketted the entire station beneath them. "And I'll place my money that you, Catalina Santiago-Mereza did it yourself." She turned to Lieutenant Hovan. "Lieutenant! Get over here for a moment!"  
"Yes, ma'am?"  
"Do you know Lt. Catalina Santiago-Mereza?" she asked him.   
"Yes ma'am. She was transferred here to B5 six years ago from the Mars Military Base," he replied stiffly. "Not much on her. She kept a low profile. I do know that she's that sneaky type of person. Very vague, never clear on anything. Or at least, that's how I've experienced with her." He shook his head. "I don't even know why she's in Earthforce in the first place."  
"Did anything unusual happen when she first arrived?" Dureena pressed on.   
"Yes, ma'am. Roughly at the same time, Cmdr. Susan Ivanova and a Ranger called Marcus Cole, both on the command staff, was chasing down some Amsterdam gang that was roaming about Down Below at brown sector whom was rumoured to steal some important artifact founded by this IPX . He was suppose to auction it to the Hak'Vir, but they turned against him."  
"Thank you. That'll be all. Dureena to Gideon..."  



	8. Caught! and Ulcers

Here's the following chapter!!!1  
  
CHAPTER SEVEN  
It was dark but he didn't dare falter. His rifle was tucked close to him and his fingers grasped the rifle like a life saver. The darkness was now adjustable in his eyes but he could feel his stomach go up in knots. He always had it long ago from the very beginning and no matter how he tried, he could never get that knawing feeling away from his stomach.   
He nearly tripped over a rusty old rod and as he heard the metal hit the ground and roll away noisily, he nearly gave himself a fright. Closing his eyes, he streadied his heart before continuing to walk through the dark hallways. Now I'm even scaring myself, he told himself. I think I've been locked in the Excalibur for far too long.  
The silence was eerie. He supposed that because it was the rear of the station, it was always like this. Dark and eerie. Babylon 5 wasn't all enviormental-safety. Inside these dark hallways, everything that was against the mission of the station happened here. Murders, fights, smuggling, drinking, you name it, they got it. It was the neck for all information regarding almost anything these days.   
Whoever grabbed Lochley sure knows the station.  
Creak. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't him now. It came from far ahead of him. He could see the dim lights that shadowed from the next curve and in that he heard a muffled. A muffled cry of one word; help. He raised his rifle a bit higher as he listened carefully, his eyes focused on the dark. Another word was yelled in the muffled clasp; help me!  
Now he raised his rifle. He saw a dark clad figure appear into the dim light, and when his or her eyes trained at Gideon, they began to drag a figure which he knew immediately by the white tunic; Lochley. She saw him alright, her eyes not afraid, but strangely worried as her mouth was clasped from speech. She was fighting him or her terribly as she squirmed her mouth free to yell; "Gideon!"  
Gideon fired a warning shot about to a conduit. "I'm coming, Lochley!"  
The hijacker ducked, and, grabbing their captive, began to make their way through the smoke that accumulated in the air from the blasted-out conduit. Gideon swept it aside and began to chase after Lochley's thief. The light flashed into his eyes as he entered the lit corridor and ached in his eyes as he continued to run, his rifle at hand. He could see that Lochley was being dragged from behind; it was difficult to run when you're holding someone.   
He watched as Lochley stuck her foot out and tripped her captor to the floor. She then bent down to her knees and had an elbow to his or her back, pinning him or her down to the floors. Gideon catched up, his rifle now trained to the head of Lochley's captor. Lochleey slowly pulled away, but her captor did not flinch for the rifle was still there.   
"Let's see who your captor is," Gideon said, bending down and yanking back the hood of Lochley's captor to reveal---chiselled brown hair?  
"Lt. Mereza?" Lochley croaked from her sore throat.   
The lieutenant craned her head to a side so Gideon could see her steady but hard brown eyes and her thin lips. Funny though, she didn't have very smooth cheekbones, and her hair seemed unusually spiky for a woman. Her thin lips were brought up to a half-smile. "You caught me, Captain," she said thinly.   
Gideon was thunderstruck. "I was chasing a woman?!" he demanded. Suddenly, his link chimed on his wrist. He snatched it up and pressed a control. "Gideon here."  
"Captain!" Dureena called. "I've got a member here who supposedly is in the Amsterdam gang that was on the bridge at the time of the situation and I believe sabotaged the unit camera before the big fight. It's Lt. Catalina Santiago-Mereza. She's been transferred from Mars Base six years ago and when she arrived, at the same time, Cmdr. Susan Ivanova and this Ranger under Marcus Cole was tracking them down."  
"Good job, Dureena, because it just so happens we caught her," he said flatly.  
"Oh?" came a responce from the other side.   
"Just one more slight situation," came a voice from behind. "We've got a Drakh war vessel coming on approach vector and had fired on us already. We've got the defence grid up but because of the recent attacks on the station, I don't know how long we'll manage."   
Lochley knew the voice immediately. "Corwin? When did you come back?"  
"As soon as I heard, sir," came a reply. "Sir, orders?"  
"Scramble the fighters while you can and hold them out as far as you can," she replied. "We have some business to finish." She glared angrily at the stupidly-grinning lieutenant who was pinned to the floor.   
"Try to hold out until the three ships come in from President Sheridan arrive," Gideon ordered. "Keep us informed. Gideon out." He then glared down at the lieutenant that was on the floor with his rifle aimed at her head. "Now, you better start talking or else I'll ask for a memory washout from a telepath."  
"PsiCorps no longer exists," she rasped maniaclly.   
"Why the hell are you sabotaging the station?" Lochley demanded.  
She took a hard glimpse at the station's commander before replying. "Sabotaging? Hmm... such dramatic words. I am merely implying that we are doing this for what has happened before. We don't just sabotage without cause; there is always a cause." She darted another mean glare at the captain. "Our quarrel is not with you but with the one before you."  
"Then why did you grab Lochley?" Gideon inquired crisply.   
"Because she's a threat to our cause," she replied vaguely. "Just as we are to you. She is the station's commander; if she were to find out the transactions Down Below with her frequent visits with that Drazi cook down there, we would surely get to jail and never come out of it again. No offence, Captain, but you are an obstacle that we must get rid off."  
Lochley narrowed her eyes dangerously at the lieutenant. "No offence, you could say," she said lightly, "but you didn't just attack Elizabeth Lochley, Catalina, you attacked the commander of this station and a commanding officer." She rolled her eyes. "Dammit, Cath, I considered you a friend! And now this?"  
"Same old, same old," Catalina pressed.   
"So what are the transactions going on down here?" Gideon demanded, wavering his rifle. "You said that if Lochley found out about your transactions down below, you'll get to jail and never come out of it. Something's weird. It sounds as if you've been directly involved in this movement since the beginning before the civil war back home and been in jail before. yet you're a member of the C&C crew, which makes the fact that---"  
"She has contacts," Lochley finished roughly. "She knows what's going on and can tell the Amsterdam gang if something is coming up."  
"Like a ship carrying a rare artifact," said a dry voice from behind. They turned around to see Chambers holding up a beaten-looking Eilerson. Max got his hand off her shoulder and limped over to the pinned-down lieutenant and bent over. "Is this the one that caused this entire forsaken mess?" he asked.   
"She's involved with it, yeah," Gideon replied. "Why?"  
Max didn't hear him. Marcus broke formation and reached in and activated his pike. With experience and swiftness, he caught Kewt at the end of his chin, then at the belly and finally caught him off balance before he could stand a fighting chance. It was like only yesterday, as he remembered swinging the dagger to the gang leader's throat...  
...Min'sk was his name...right?  
"I remember you!" Max croaked unintellgently. "You're that damned Kewt guy that Marcus swung off on that day six years ago!" He rolled her over so she could face the ceiling anf examined her chin. A thn red scar was on her chin, which could've been a result of stitches right after the attack. "Yes! You are! But...you're a woman!"  
"Hello, Mr. IPX man. We've been waiting for you," she said softly, grinning widely.   
"You know her?" Lochley asked, crossing her arms tightly across her chest and glaring down at Catalina.   
"Yes, but right now, that's not important," Max told them, looking up. "There's a bomb located at the fusion reactor. I've done some preliminary exams throughout the conduits and eventually came to a thermal heat sourse from in there. I think the gang had locked onto it and stuck it there."  
All eyes were on Catalina, who was grinning with satisfaction. "And all those who was involved will wrath our vengance. And none of you can stop it! Hah...hah-hah!...hah-hah-hah-hah!" She began to laugh hysterically when Chambers came up, slapped her in the face with a bolted fist and tied her up.   
"We better get moving," Gideon said.  
  
"Beta Squad, scramble!" Matheson ignited his fusions as his fighter swinged around to face the vessel. He ignited the thrusters to full speed as he felt his vessel come closer and closer towards the Drakh ship with amazing speed. His forehead was filmed with sweat now and his eyes were beginning to ache. If only he could shut his eyes for only a moment...  
"Beta Leader, it's Beta Two! Drakh vessel is powering up forward guns," Miller reported frantically over the comm system. "And if my calculations are correct, they're aiming for Babylon 5's mouth hole for port system."  
"Dammit, C&C's located there!" Matheson said, firing his weapons at the tiny vessels that were shooting them from the Mother Ship. "And if the weaponry hits there, there could be a chain reaction throughout the station and blow it up...and if the ignition's strong enough, it may blow us up at the same time."  
"Drakh mother ships are known for five-second count before jumping," Miller droned.   
Matheson sighed. "I wish you didn't have to say that," he said tiresomely. He clicked another channel, this time headed to C&C. "C&C, this is Beta Leader Matheson. I've just recieved report from my wingman that the Drakh vessel is loading up forward phasers and are aiming it right at the port near C&C. Copy?"  
"Roger that, Beta Leader. Did you say it's headed here?" Corwin asked. "Oh, damn! Our defence perimeter is starting to degrade and it blows here, there'll be a chain reaction to the entire station. C&C is the heart of the station."  
"I couldn't agree more," Matheson agreed. "I'll try to foil their plans out here."  
"We appriciate that, Lieutenant. Keep us informed. C&C over and out."  
Matheson switched back to the impact of the battle. "Beta Seven and Nine, aim for the ship's weakest point, which would probably be the drainage system at the back rear," he ordered. "Beta Six and Eight, aim for the main propulsion systems. Beta Three, try getting a clear shot at their main guns area and Beta Two, you're with me."  
"Aye, sir," came muffled replies.   
The ships began to split and head to different directions. Matheson swerved gracefully around and headed to the engines area. From a computer navigator, he could see that Miller was not far behind from him They steadied on position just far enough from the Drakh vessel. "Okay, squad," he said. "Here's the plan. On the count of three, you will shoot all fire power to your destinated area, and hopefully it'll ilfiltrate the enemy. You got me there?"  
"Aye sir," they all replied.   
The reply was bold with confidence but he knew that they were all filled with dread as the moments came passing in. Matheson prayed that they wouldn't chicken out on the last moment. He held a steady hand on the controls as his fighter came whizzing about towards the end shaft of the entire ship with Miller there. Now that he made it, he affixed himself on a position far enough that he couldn't be scortched but close enough so he could get a lock.   
"One..."  
His fingers curled around the joystick.  
"Two..."  
His thumb had its place on the red button that woud fire a torpedo.  
"There...fire!"  
His thumb raced down and as a torpedo came zooming towards the aft with Miller's not far behind. He switched to manual and began to fire heavily on the vessel. Fire spluttered everywhere as the vessel began cringe slightly. On Matheson's screen, he could see that the vessel was beginning to crumble.   
Suddenly, the jump point opened up and in zoomed three warlock-class starships, shooting out their defence grids towards the invading alien vessel. Matheson read off the hull's names; the Scutum, the Pavo and the Corona Borealis. He couldn't help but admire their timing as they continued to shoot through their systems.   
His computer panel bleeped.  
"All hands, retreat back ten thousand kilometers, the ship's gonna blow!"  
The Furies began to zoom backwards, tumbling in space. The Drakh ship looked paralysed even though it was a few hearty shots. The stars rolled as Matheson watched his readout. The ship's defence grid was down. Their engines were far beyond corrupt now. It wavered slightly forward before the engines and propulsion system died out and exploded in white sheer light...   
  
It was getting strangely hot by the time the hit the fusion reactor room that Gideon had to unadjust his collar. He could see, from the corner of his eye, that Lochley was now drowning in sweat along with Max and Doctor Chambers, both whom were carrying the limp body of Catalina.  
"Damn, it's hot," Max slurred.  
"Tell me about it," Chambers replied, dropping the body nearby. "She weighs a ton."  
"Maybe you could check her pockets," Max retorted, "and see if she's carrying a nine-millimeter Glock at hand...never mind...make it an M-1 Abrams Tank."  
"Very funny," she sneered.   
Lochley staggered through the floors, her hand holding support by the rusty bulkheads, her hair now mopped her face and her breathing in great gasps and breaths. Gideon turned around from the sarcastic conversation between Max and the doctor and catching the weak captain before she hit the floors.  
He pulled her to her feet. "Easy does it, Captain," he said soothingly. "You should have stayed in MedLab."  
Lochley shook her head. "No, not when my station's about to be torn into five million pieces," she replied weakly. Seeing his worried look, she gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, I'm okay, okay? I'll manage the next five meters. Really." She looked up at him again. He tilted his face a bit towards hers...  
"Captains! We found the bomb!"  
Leave it to Eilerson to spoil the moment. Lochley moved slowly aand carefully to the reactor, where the IPX man was studying a complicated-looking bomb planted on the hull of the mood-changing reactor. All four of them knelt down as Lochley unlatched the hatch, to reveal several different colour-coded buttons.  
"Okay, obviously there's a key to this, a code," Chambers observed.  
"Whatever it is, we better do it fast," Lochley said quickly. "It says here that the system will overload in three minutes. When that's up, the system will overload the power matrix in this hull deflector. It was send a series of ion beacons towards the secondary pulses' lines which controls all sources of power aboard this station; gravity, electricity, weaponry, defence grid...and will basically overload the commaand overrides and simply...boom."  
"Take a code," Gideon said, "and whatever it is, it better be a doozy."  
"Six-letter code," Lochley said. "Take your pick, Mr. Eilerson."  
Thoughts came across his mind. Six-letter code...what could it be? It must be something he knew from before. Unless this damned computer was on a number-code sequence. Whatever. The clock was now in one minute department. Great. Wrong move and the station...and him and his gorgeous amount of profit...will simply disappear. Like a puff of smoke when the Hak'Vir threw the bomb...  
Hak'Vir!  
"Aha!" Max cried, tapping in the code. H...A...K...  
"Ten seconds and counting..." Chambers narrated.  
V...I...  
"Four...three..."  
R!  
"Two...one."  
The computer beeped. Time was up. Then, the computer screen just died down. No more digits. No booms, or end of the world, or nothing. They all sighed in relief. At least the entire crisis was over. Finally. The station was safe.  
Catalina moaned, and then perched herself up.   
They all turned around to see her scowl.  
"Damn," she muttered. "I'm not dead?!  



	9. The End of a Dream

Here's the final chapter. Enjoy! ^^ Please R&R!  
  
CHAPTER EIGHT  
"How are you feeling?" Gideon asked her.   
Lochley perched herself up from the chair. "Better," she replied with a tight smile, putting down the papers. They were in the conference room of the Excalibur, waiting for the rest of the command crew. "But now I have all this paperwork waiting for me."  
"What's new?" he asked.   
"Look, Matt," she said after a moment of silent awkwardness, "I didn't really got a chance to thank you for coming in when you did. I could be dead right now if you didn't appear to save my station from becoming sub-atomic particles." She smiled softly. "Well, here it is. Thank you. For everything."  
"You're welcome."  
The awkwardness ended when the doors slid open and in marched Dureena. Clean. She marched up to Gideon, and with a finger pointed to his face, she growled, "If you ever, ever put me in command again, shoot me!"  
"Yes, ma'am," he replied jokingly.   
She growled and tightened her cross arms.  
The door swung open again, and in walked Dr. Chambers and Max Eilerson. "You'll be happy to know, captains," Max began, "that Catalina has been place under charges over sabotage of the military unit. She's aboard the Scutum right now, in their Security Center. She'll be shipped to Earth for her appearance in Court."  
"Maintenace crews from the ships has been dispatched to the station for repairs," Chambers added, directing to Lochley. "The ships caught up with a few life pods floating around and are being cared for right now in some of the bases nearby administered by the InterStellar Alliance. They'll be returning back to the station in a couple of days."  
"Good," Lochley replied. "Thank you."  
The doors swung open again, to reveal Matheson and Miller, Matheson in his uniform now while Miller remained in a pilot's jumpsuit. "Captain," Matheson called. "I wanted to suggest to you about placing Miller head of the Beta Squad unit aboard the ship. He may be annoying, but he's one hell of a good pilot."  
"Consider it done," Gideon replied, nodding at Miller.  
"Thank you, sir," Miller said grandly.   
The doors swung open one more time, this time an Earthforce officer entered the room. A captain in the navy blue uniform with the Earthforce insignia flashing. She had a bold approach, Russian visage with her hair pulled tightly behind her head and breaking off to a ponytail. Her wrists were on top of each other as she nodded curtly.   
Eilerson gasped.   
"Crew, I'd like you to meet Captain Susan Ivanova of the Corona Borealis," Gideon introduced, gesturing to the young captain who was perhaps over thirty now. Max blinked; was it only yesterday she was in a commander's uniform? Funny, it was only six years ago she was only a commander of Babylon 5.  
Gideon was different; darker, always brooding. Or maybe it was only because he and Gideon were always at each other's throats...  
Marcus.  
Once Ivanova reached him, he would ask what happened to his ranger friend who had that puppy love for her years ago.   
"And this," Gideon finally said, "is the head of the linguist and archaeological department... Maximillian Eilerson." Max tipped his head politely as Gideon gestured to him. Ivanova returned the acknowledgement. "Eilerson," she greeted kindly but strangely subtle. "It's been a long time since I last saw you. Last time you were on Babylon 5, you were... arranging that meeting with the Hak'Vir."  
Now Gideon, Lochley and everyone else in the room were listening carefully to the conversation with the same thought; They met? He didn't mind; he didn't care. This was his business and his alone. He had learned many things since he was assigned to the Excalibur; leave one alone and you shall not be bothered. But it never seem to work either way.   
"It's good to see you again," he replied back curtly. "Um, may I ask whatever happened to my good ranger friend, Marcus? I heard that he was involved with the Shadow War and the Civil War in Earth Alliance." He smiled grimly. "Funny...six years..."  
Ivanova seemed drawn back. As if recovering from something very painful in her mind, in her heart. This didn't look like good news. "He's gone, Max," she finally stated softly. "He died during the Civil War. He---He saved my life, Max. He let me live and took death instead." She shook her head, as if trying to take away the memory itself.   
Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. Marcus, dead? He was a Ranger for crying out loud! If only he was there to see him before the war, or during the war. He was far off when the war started, on an expedition on another planet and were quarintined to remain there till the war ended. So much things have happened; and the ironic thing was, it took him six years before he found out the awful truth.   
Marcus Cole was dead.   
"If only I were there," he said just above a whisper. Everyone was listening, including Ivanova herself. "I would have gave my life for him. I owed him that much." His eyes followed the table's legs to the floor, casted with an unbearable pang of grief. "He loved you, you know? He---he told me that, that day, a long, long time ago. He was "up to the challange" i suppose." He gave a short, bitter laugh.  
"I know," Ivanova replied softly. "He told me that before he---left."  
Max gulped dryly; he was in front of the entire crew! They were all looking at him with pity; for once in his entire stay on the ship, they looked at him with that sort of feeling. Oh, what the hell? They're just feeling sorry for him. They didn't care. They always thought that he was always searching for a greater profit margin; what did they know? Oh, look! Maximillian Eilerson, the guy after money all the time, has feelings! "I---I guess that ends my question. Now, I guess I'll have to live with this truth till the day I die, eternally grateful for what he did all those years ago. Who said the dead can't hear our prayers?"  
"Max---!" Chambers broke in, unable to hold the tension.   
Max just shrugged, and then the talking was reinsated as the two captains were talking to Ivanova, the former commander of Babylon 5. He was left out all over again to himself and his thoughts as he walked over to the window where the stars just loomed over. Not even a couple of miles could stop him from talking to him. Somewhere, out there, Marcus Cole was there, with that damned Minbari pike that nearly lost his nose, looking down at whatever he and Ivanova were doing, every move they made. He probably wanted them to move on. Life must go on.   
All those stars...  
Goodbye, my friend. You will be missed.   
  
END 


End file.
